Baby Steps
by MadameTuesday
Summary: Shimura Nana is not prepared to come out of retirement to take care of her traumatized grandson. (Crossposted to Ao3)
1. Chapter 1

It's late _(too late, now that she's retired)_ , and she's sore (she's always sore these days now that her muscles don't get as much work as they used to), and she's preparing to go to bed when the phone rings. She's retired now, and the people who would need to call her this late know that. The phone call isn't an emergency. She can skip it.

Old habits die hard. She picks up the phone.

"Is this Shimura Nana?" The voice is serious ( _almost grim, almost like she's back in her prime seeing the worst humanity had to offer_ ).

"Yes, this is she. Is something wrong? It's late."

"My name is Takuma Mori, from the Musutafu Prefecture PD."

The police are calling her, what a flashback. Why, though? She's _retired_. She'd be more than happy to come out of retirement, but her leg...

"I'm sorry, but I'm-"

"Retired, yes. I know. THe country isn't in danger, ma'am. Don't worry. This is a personal matter. This is about your son, Ichirou."

Her heart drops.

 _No_.

"I'm afraid there was an...incident. He's passed away."

"What…" she swallows the lump in her throat, suddenly wishing she had been able to see her son one last time. "What happened?"

"That's still unclear, ma'am. However, this isn't entirely about your son. Shimura Ichirou is listed as having had a son. And the boy…" Takuma clears his throat on the other side of the line. "His quirk allows him to decay anything he touches with all five of his fingers. It is highly suspected that he may have played an unwilling part in your son's death. But, uhm..." Takuma clears his throat again, clearly nervous about what he's saying. "There's signs of heavy abuse on the child, ma'am…."

Shimura Nana's bad knee finally gives out below her, and she falls into the chair that is ( _thankfully_ ) next to her phone. _Did she do this? Did sending her son away to protect him turn him into...?_

"Ma'am? Are you still there?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm still here. I...will...will my grandson be alright?"

 _Grandson. She's a grandmother. ….She must the only living relative of the boy. They'll ask her-_

"He will be, yes ma'am. He's in the hospital now-he's been hit rather badly and he's very underfed, but he'll be alright. CPS has been looking and you're listed as-"

"The only living relative, I assume? Do you want me to come to Musutafu? To see him?"

"That would be ideal, yes. Tenko has been rather... out of sorts, since his father's death and knowing he isn't alone and has somewhere to go may do some good."

 _Tenko. His name is Tenko._

"May I come tomorrow evening? There are some things I need to take care of."

"Tomorrow evening will be perfect! We have your address on file-protection purposes, ma'am. All Might insisted on it. My assistant will be there tomorrow to bring you. I'll fax you the remaining details, and some information on the boy."

"How...how old is he?"

"He's five years old, ma'am. Do you have any more questions?"

"N-no...thank you," she's choking up. _A grandmother…_

"Alright, I'll wish you good night then, ma'am. We'll see you tomorrow."

* * *

So, this is my very first fanfic in a _really_ long time and I'd like to think I've gotten a lot better at writing. A lot of my old stuff focused mostly on OCs so Nana might be out of character. Since this is an AU where Tenko got saved by someone OTHER than AFO, Shigaraki Tomura isn't really going to be a thing.


	2. Chapter 2

And, we're back! I'm so sorry it took me so long to work on this. I've been trying to figure it out (this is my first fic in a while, and I still don't really know what I'm doing). Plus with college (and several disasters regarding deleted midterm presentations), writing this wasn't my top priority, even though I definitely wanted to continue writing it. But, I'm back! Although I still have a lot of school stuff left, and a convention coming up this January I have a lot to prepare for, so I can't guarentee regular updates for a while.

* * *

"He's _what_?!"

Toshinori Yagi stares at the woman sitting on the couch. As a young woman, she'd have been calm, collected, and confident. Now, the woman that had taught him so much of what he knows looks at him with anxiety in her eyes.

"Exactly what I said, Toshi. My grandson."

"And Ichirou…"

"Yes."

Toshinori sits down across from her, rubbing at his forehead. Nana had called him and Gran Torino only about fifteen minutes ago, sounding like she had been on the verge of crying. She had explained what he suspected was only a small portion of the story—summarizing that her son had abused his son, died somehow, and his son was completely alone now. He didn't want the details.

"When are you going to see him?" Gran Torino is surprisingly calm as she explains.

"Tomorrow evening. They said there would be a car sent for me around six."

After a moment, Toshinori's signature All Might smile spreads over his face. "Then we'd better start making him a bedroom! A young boy like Tenko can't sleep in a room as empty as your guest room! It needs color! Toys! A bed meant for a boy his age!"

Toshinori had insisted on her getting a two-bedroom apartment when she had been looking at homes for her retirement. Originally, it had been used as a storage room, and then a guest room whenever Gran Torino had been in the area. She hadn't really seen the use for it at first, since Sorahiko never really stayed over, and she didn't have enough things to need a storage room.

 _She was very glad she had the guest bedroom now._

* * *

Shimura Nana stares into her guest room, and at the mountain of large and small boxes that now filled it (which she highly suspected her pupil had bought while she wasn't looking). He had made her go to bed only a little while after realizing they'd need to redecorate the room (and quickly), stating she would need her energy for the next day—that she was incredibly overwhelmed (she'd lost a son all over again, gained a grandson, and completely reorganized her life within the span of maybe three hours—of course she was overwhelmed). How…how long had he been at this?

"What…did you do?" she asks, as she steps into it, turning in a full circle to properly take in the amount of clutter Toshinori has created.

"You were still asleep, and I knew we'd only have today to get this done. So I went shopping for some furniture! That one Swedish furniture store that just recently opened a store downtown? They had everything he could need…and I do mean everything." He's opening a large bag that seems to have pillows, a plush dog, and a large stack of colorful plastic bowls and utensils.

"Toshinori, I'm not bringing him home tonight. They have to keep him in the hospital for another few days, and I am still required to go through the process in order to take care of him. I gave up my son for adoption, they may not even allow me to take Tenko in. This is excessive."

"Nonsense! You gave Ichirou up for his own protection while you were active. But you've retired, and your enemies are in jail. Young Tenko is perfectly safe with you. And don't worry, Nana. It was just the most basic essentials!"

"Toshinori... _what did you buy_?"

"Uhm…" The receipt he pulls out is _massive._ "Like I said, the essentials: a bed frame, mattress, some toys, a dresser, toy bin, desk and chairs, some children's dishes…"

It's...surprisingly less than she expected considering the length of the receipt, although he still got completely unnecessary items (she was fairly sure race car carpets and paint easels were not standard children's bedroom furniture, even if they were popular).

"And how much did you _spend_?"

"One-hundred fifty-ish?"

"There's no way you got all that for-."

"...Thousand."

" _Toshinori."_

"What?! My bedroom had all these things when I was his age-gyah!"

Nana turns around, to find Toshinori rubbing his head and Sorahiko lowering his cane and smirking.

"You're not prepping his bedroom, you're filling up a goddamn house," he yells at the younger man. "But you already bought it, and Nana is stressed enough so just set this up so she can get ready for tonight."

* * *

It's some sort of miracle that they have even half the furniture Toshinori had bought put together before Nana realizes she needs to get ready before the car got there. A short shower (she had to drag herself out of the hot water-it's safe in the water and she doesn't have to worry about a child that will possibly be put into her care sooner than she could ever be prepared for), and a change of clothes later and she's suddenly found herself staring into her bedroom mirror-where a photo of her and a child is tucked into the frame.

Whatever Ichirou had become, whatever he had done to his son, he hadn't always been that way.

With a slightly shaking hand, Nana takes the photo out of the mirror frame, as she has every day for over twenty years. He was four years old in it, she had been thirty-two. One For All was still coursing strong through her as she prepared Toshinori to take the power. Her husband was still alive. Nothing bad had happened yet.

 _That man hadn't happened yet._

Shimura Nana's first meeting with the man known as All For One had nearly cost her her life.

 _Don't think about it, Nana._

In the end, her husband had been killed trying to hide her location. And with One for All now pumping through Toshinori, she had no longer been capable of fighting him. All for One had left her alive for some reason, yet-

 _I said stop it, Nana. You have other things to worry about-things that are happening_ _ **right now**_ _._

He had killed her husband, what would have stopped him from killing Ichirou? Absolutely nothing, not even her death, not even her giving him One For All would have stopped him. Was she doing the right thing by entering Tenko's life? If All For One found out about him, she doubted he'd stop at anything to get his hands on her grandson.

There was a _reason_ she had left Ichirou's life, why she hadn't wanted any of her contacts to have anything to do with him.

"Nana? It's time."

Toshinori is in her doorway, staring at her with concern in his eyes, and a nervous frown on his usually smiling face (she's not the only one that's nervous-thank God).

"Are you alright? It's time to go."

"I'm...fine. I'm fine- just thinking. Toshinori, why are you in your costume?"

Toshinori looks down at his body, at the obnoxiously colorful suit he's wearing. "Well, I thought-I figured All Might might make him feel a bit safer. He's going to be very overwhelmed, and very scared. With whatever Ichirou did to him, whatever happened last night, today? Meeting his grandmother? All Might might help calm him down."

Fair enough, she should have assumed that would have been his reasoning. For all his impulsive recklessness, he could actually have incredible foresight when it came to his work.

Nana looks down at the photo in her hand, at the little boy in it that wasn't yet a monster, and buries it deep under a pile of folders and photos in her dresser. She has to let him go.

"Now I'm ready."

* * *

I'm going to be totally honest with you guys: I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. This is the first fanfic I've ever written that didn't focus on an OC, and the first multi-chapter piece I've written both in fanfiction or in my own creative writing in a very long time.

This fic also wasn't planned. The first chapter came out of a discussion in a Discord channel that I decided to write a drabble for since I liked the idea. The Discord encouraged me to turn it into a full-fledged fic after I said I had several other ideas about what such a timeline would be like.

Pacing is going to be a bit wonky for a bit, timelines aren't the most organized, but I am trying and I will be doing what I can to organize it better in future chapters so bless all of you that are willing to stand by me through this as I try to organize it.


End file.
